How a fantasy football league feud escalated into an international incident that ended with a Philly man convicted of felonies

What began as a feud in an online fantasy football league and an immature prank spawned an international investigation that ended Wednesday with a Philadelphia man pleading guilty to federal felony crimes.

Matthew Gabriel, 25, told a federal judge he sent fake tips to authorities in Norway and Iowa, hoping to implicate a fellow member of his league after the two fell out in its online chat group.

He anonymously warned that his rival, a student at the University of Iowa, planned to carry out a mass shooting at a concert and a department store in Oslo, where his adversary was studying abroad at the time. Gabriel provided investigators a detailed account of when the man was expected to arrive in the country and a description of his physical appearance — all information he had gleaned from the chat group.

“I just can’t have random people dying on my conscience,” Gabriel’s August 2023 message to the Norwegian Police Security warned.

That tip triggered what prosecutors described as a massive response from authorities across the Atlantic, involving more than 900 investigator hours over five days last year.

“It was just a practical joke,” Gabriel’s attorney, Lonny Fish, said Wednesday. “It probably went a little further than it was meant to go.”

But the federal charges prosecutors filed against Gabriel in March weren’t enough to halt the hostilities.

Two weeks after the case was filed, Gabriel sent another threat, this time to the University of Iowa, alleging his rival was planning to blow up the school.

“His actions were extremely disruptive and consumed significant law enforcement resources on two continents, diverting them from actual incidents and investigations,” U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said in a statement. “Hoax threats aren’t a joke or protected speech, they’re a crime.”

Gabriel — whom his lawyer described as a generally “good kid” and a “blue-collar guy who likes football” — pleaded guilty Wednesday to two felony counts of transmitting interstate threats, each punishable by up to five years in prison.

But in a deal struck with prosecutors, he will likely be spared time behind bars. Government lawyers agreed to recommend a sentence of 15 months’ house arrest and three years’ probation when Gabriel is set to be sentenced in January.

“This guy is fortunate as hell to get house arrest,” Fish said in an interview Wednesday. “I wouldn’t recommend anyone else do this and expect to get the same result.”

As for what spawned the fantasy league fracas that nearly landed his client in prison, prosecutors didn’t say. And Fish did not detail the origins. He couldn’t say, either, which team his client roots for.

“I’m an Eagles fan,” the attorney quipped. “I didn’t ask him.”